“What does it mean to serve students who are most in need of our love and nurture?”
Pecolia Manigo, Executive Director of Oakland speaks with Coriander Melious and Cintya Molina, Oakland Unified School District parents and disability justice advocates, around Oakland School Board budget advocacy. Tune in to hear about the role of the School Board in creating a budget process, what budget development looks like at a school site level, the power of parents getting involved in how money is spent in our schools, and how students with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities are advocating for a collective cause.
Cintya Molina, Oakland Unified School District parent and disability justice advocate
Cintya Molina is the proud mother of a Boricua and African American Neurodivergent young man who attended schools in the Oakland Unified School District since 2009 and graduated in 2023. Cintya has worked in OUSD schools and the OUSD central office since 2005, supporting family engagement and leadership in many forms. As a former chair of the OUSD Community Advisory Committee for Special Education and through many community initiatives, she is a Disability Justice organizer who is deeply committed to intersectional politics across diverse experiences. Since 2015, she has been the staff support for OUSD’s district advisory committees. These committees are the foundation of the district’s engagement process for the Local Control and Accountability Plan and the budget.
Coriander Melious M. Ed, Mommy, Sister, Tita, Daughter, Education Specialist, Literacy Coach, and Co-Chair of The OUSD Community Advisory Committee for Special Education
“I’m Northern Cali born and raised. I have taught in OUSD alternative and comprehensive High Schools for 15+ years, a majority of that time as an Education Specialist case managing neurodiverse students on the Autism Spectrum. I was department head of Oakland Tech’s SPED department for two years in 2016-2018. I have been involved with CAC since my daughter began going to Oakland public schools in 2014. I am the parent of a brilliant, beautiful, and fierce disabled child. My pedagogy and lens for education has always been, and always will be, about Liberation.”
“How do we build the schools around us? Schools are an expression of community. Our (current) set up has us disarticulating our communities.” – Cintya Molina